DS1 is a bit sad about new baby - suggestions for day out to cheer him up please!

[PrincessPeaHead]

Ds1 is 5.5 and is 2nd of 4. I think he has been more affected by the birth of DD2 than I thought - we probably focussed a bit too much on how DS2 (2.5) was feeling and assumed DS1 would be fine. Anyway, half term is coming up, and DH and I thought we would leave the two little ones for the day and take the two big ones on an adventure, to have a bit of undistracted attention and fun. We live in N Wilts near the M4 and are happy to go almost anywhere - beach in N Wales? Legoland? Cadburyworld? We'd like something that involves a bit of running around, but also something interesting and "grown up", ie that a 5 yo would enjoy but a 2 yo wouldn't. Visit a castle? Alnwick? (Although that might be more than a day trip from us). Go-carting? I'd really appreciate any suggestions you have - the more off the wall the better. Thanks!

legoland si fabbo

is he colectign the merlin england 22006 stickers? we do too cans end him some doubles

dha dn my two snet to paultons park alst eyar when ds3 was ill on a td day
dh thoguht ist was great

\link{http://www.paultonspark.co.uk/2006/info/location.html\here}

Would this be too far, pph?

Lulworth Castle & Park. Wareham. Children’s Half Term Fun To Friday 2 June. Lots of fun, prizes and activities for children of all ages! Includes 30 May – 1 June – Circus Skills in the Castle. There is juggling, plate spinning, diablo, rope spinning, fun stilts and lots more. Gates open 10.30am. Contact 0845 450 1054

railway museum in swindon??!!! how many hours have I spent there in my life. yawn.
We are collecting panini 2006 world cup stickers which is a pain because they appear only to be sold at toys r us....

now thinking of isle of wight for a night or london for a night.

lol at steam! I know!

where abouts are you in wilts?

How about cotswold wildlife park
cotewater
bourton on the water - model village/bird place
lydiard park
avebury

Have you thought about Bristol?

There is the docks, SS Great Britain/Matthew, you can take a ferry round the harbour?

There is the Industrial museum, steam trains run on weekends.

There is the @Bristol complex (Wildwalk, 3D cimena (Sharks showing at the mo), sciency bit which my DS loves and he is 4.5.

That's jsut things in the harbourside area!

Oh yes! Portsmouth!! DH can't wait until dd is old enough to go and appreciate it (but then he's a salty old sea dog). There's HMS Victory and HMS Warrior and a museum called Action Stations and you can have a boat trip round Portsmouth Harbour.

We did a Portsmouth day trip over the Easter holidays and it was voted the best day out ever by dd1 (10) and ds (6).

The Mary Rose is fab, though very much a wreck, but they have a fantastic hand-held commentary aimed at children which had them spellbound. There's a separate Mary Rose museum with lots of interactive and handling stuff.

Then the Victory -- great, lots of stuff for handling (aimed at school trips I guess) like cat ' nine tails, sailors' hammocks and ships biscuits.

Action stations is essentially a games arcade with a naval theme, so there's a helicopter flight deck simulator, a gunnery where they have to shoot down incoming missiles etc etc. Ours would have spent all day there quite happily.

And a boat trip round Portsmouth harbour with a joky captain.

There's lots more, but only so much you can do in one trip the ticket is valid for a year so you can go back and fill in the gaps as it were. It's all one big enclosure, but each attraction has its own character, so doesn't feel like a theme park. The catering is unbranded as well, which is always nice, and there's a big place to eat your own picnics. And you can park in a big building-sitey area 2 mins walk away all clearly marked. I can't recommend it highly enough if you have vaguely historically-interested over fours.

Does he like birds?

\link{http://www.wwt.org.uk/visit/slimbridge/news.asp?ArticleID=362\downy duckling days} at Slimbridge?

frogs' Portsmouth day out sounds much more exciting though

bristol a great idea but granny is from bristol so we have done that a lot.

I think portsmouth has our vote, especially since frog's post. sounds fab. thank you so much for that. hurrah!

oh downy ducklings sounds excellent - I think portsmouth on tuesday with older two and then slimbridge on wednesday with everyone. ds2 does love his poultry!

Wow! After frogs' description I can see why dh is so excited about going.

oh gosh yes it does

was htinking spinnaker tower etc
very good frogs we may go in half term

portsmouth is going to be SWARMING with mumsnetters at half term

all wearing my funky Fly shoes

ohh no n good for clamvbering aboard
will wear nautical look
blazer gilt buttons

Sounds like you're settled on Portsmouth! but another idea in South Wales is Big Pit Mining Museum. It's free (god bless free welsh museums I say) and you have to be over 5 to go down the mine (so good reason for praising his big boy status) You get a guided tour of the mine with your own headtorch and belt thing and it is pitch black down there so pretty good for being a big brave boy type comments. It's only 20-30 minutes into Wales so dead easy from where you are. Also, you can combine it with a nice lunch somewhere like Newport, Abergavenny, Monmouth, even Cardiff or somewhere and make a day of it.

A place my DS likes is Conkers!

I haven't taken him but Diggerland near Exeter looks pretty good too.

Well, I hope y'all have as good a time as we did! As an afterthought, you can book the tickets \link{http://www.historicdockyard.co.uk/welcome.html\online} and have them sent to you, depending on how far ahead you are planning. We didn't get round to booking ahead, cos we're not that organised, but it would save you starting the day by standing in a queue for 20 mins, which is never a bad thing.

Also check the busy-ness of the Action Stations thing. When we went it was almost completely empty which was excellent, but there were ominous signs on the popular games saying: 'Queuing time 30 mins from this point'. So might be worth having a little recce so you can pop in at a quieter moment.